Day 6: Wallin paired with Boyle, Helminen gets call-up — plus a Bobby Orr sighting in the halls at ACC

TORONTO — No shortage of things going on after the morning skate when it’s at the Air Canada Center.

First, the nuts and bolts:

— Niclas Wallin will be wearing No. 7 and starting the game paired with Dan Boyle. Per usual, everything will be fluid as the game goes on.

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Wallin connected with his new teammates around 9 p.m. last night and headed out for steaks with Douglas Murray. It’s the first time in a while that either have had a Swedish teammates, so the conversation was not in English.

— A new face from Worcester will be filling in on the fourth line between Jody Shelley and Brad Staubitz. The Sharks called up Dwight Helminen, a 26-year-old center who played 23 games for Carolina last season before signing with San Jose as a free agent last summer.

The 5-foot-10, 180-pound Helminen, who has eight goals and 14 points at Worcester this season, brings speed and a willingness to hit. He was a teammate of Wallin’s last year in Carolina and overlapped at Michigan with Jed Ortmeyer for two seasons.

Helminen will have No. 36 on his jersey.

— Just like old times, it’ll be Evgeni Nabokov vs. Jean-Sebastien Giguere in nets.

Now, onto other tidbits.

–Walked past Devin Setoguchi talking to hockey great Bobby Orr in the hallways outside the visiting locker room before San Jose took the ice. Setoguchi’s agent, Paul Krepelka, works with the Boston-based Orr Hockey Group and this was only the second time the Sharks’ right wing had direct contact with the legendary Bruins defenseman.

— Ron Wilson says he is looking forward to coaching Joe Pavelski again with Team USA and plans to use him at center with Phil Kessel and Ryan Malone. More on the ex-Sharks coach as he gets ready for the Vancouver Olympics in an upcoming print edition story.

— Joe Thornton was having a good time with one of the camera crews here in a light-hearted interview about the upcoming Olympics. I missed the question, but based on the answer, I presume it had to do with how much pressure was on Team Canada to bring home the gold.

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“How much do 30 million people weigh?” asked Thornton, approximating the population of his homeland. “A buck-eighty each? What’s 180 times 30 million?”

The answer is 5.4 billion pounds.

“We can handle it,” Thornton assured the interviewer.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

Oh btw did anyone mention that it’s 5.4 billion? Just want to make sure.

jhu12

Ron Wilson is going to enjoy coaching Joe Pavelski again….

Why? So he can bury him on the 4th line again? Maybe put him in the press box? I seem to remember Joe and Ron not having the best relationship.

Dirty

What are the odds that Blake will retire mid-season?

Sharks2010

Well, technically, pressure is measured in weight over a given area (such as psi). Therefore, it’s 5.4 billion lb. divided by the square inches occupying each player’s shoulders. There are 23 players on the roster, and let’s say each one’s shoulder area measures 5″ x 16″ (excluding the neck), that is 5.4 billion lb/ (23 x 80in2), that would equal, on average, 2,934,783 pounds per square inch per player 🙂

jhu12

#11 Dirty —

“I’d say more like 1 million to 1.”

“So, you’re telling me there’s a chance. I read ya.”

PK

hmmm….on D:

Boyle / Wallin
Blake / Murray
Demers (Vlasik when healthy) / Huskins

We’ll see…I hope it’s enough!

djaphelion

@11 None. 🙁

David Pollak

All,

Maddening. I did the math. I counted the zeroes. I knew it was billion. And despite that knowledge, the finger hit the M instead of the B.

Fixing now.

And the D-pairings at the morning skate were:

Boyle-Wallin
Blake-Murray
Huskins-Leach

DP

zoowar

I hope he’s not counting on the average woman weighing a buck-eighty.

glennzky

I was thinking Zbynek Michalek would have been a good pickup for a defenseman. He always plays well when I see him play against the Sharks – hard to beat, plays hard, moves the puck well, etc. His salary is less than Wallin and he is also an unrestricted free agent this summer.

Wilson reportedly said no one will have to be moved to fit Wallin under the cap but will it cause issues with being able to bring players up from Worcester? If someone gets hurt and a player needs to be called up, will they be able to do that without placing the player on injured reserve? Not sure how close they are to the cap now. I hope guys like McGinn and Demers will still get to play this season.

I hope this trade doesn’t mean Demers will be staying in Worcester. He makes mistakes but the Sharks are a better team with him. He moves the puck well and makes great offensive plays. No one other than Boyle or Blake have that skill on the team. Seems like we have too many players from the same basic defense only style now – Huskins, Wallin, Leach and Murray. Vlasic is playing that style too but at least he has the ability to add some offense (not sure why he doesn’t though).

Does Helminen have to clear waivers to move up and down? Was wondering when he’d get a chance to play.

#16- 180 lbs. is an average of a person used by most ie., pilots of a plane.

Sb

It’s cool DP, the same thing happened Dr. Evil.

5.4 BILLION pounds!! >pinky<

SoCalSharkie

#18, have you seen Demers in the Hawks’ game? He was terrible. He needs to be in WHL and get better at positioning and coverage.

macman

Boyle, Vlassic, Blake, Murray are the givens. Let’s see who rises up out of Wallin, Leach, Huskins and Demers. It would seem that Leach’s stock is on the rise and Huskins is dropping with Demers being consistently inconsistent but certainly good when he can keep the intensity and focus up. With all the emphasis on veteran experience going into the playoffs Demers could be out but I hope he plays up. Over the past two years we have seen enough veteran short-termers who didn’t add spark come playoff time.

JB

I like the Wallin upgrade as I don’t see the Sharks defense as sound relying on Demers and Joslin in the playoffs, not as an every game proposition. Not this year, night after night against a playoff team that can really focus on the weaknesses in their respective games.

On a lighter not, I wish I’d gotten here earlier.; Woulda said “Billion…as in Belfour.” Ah well, timing is so important.

SactoShark

What’s up with Torrey… Did he skate?

John

A HUGE LOL at Joe Thornton saying “we can handle it” when it comes to pressure. Hilarious guy he is.

macman

Sacto…he’s on the second line since Manny is injured.

Ryan

Well said JB, we need to think of this pick up (Wallin) as an upgrade. Barring injuries, would we really want Joslin playing in the playoffs? At least now Huskins and Leach will have to earn their minutes with this added internal competition. I am not a big fan of huskins, but i do think his play has gotten better since the start of the season (not saying a WHOLE lot). Demers will be the future, but he isnt ready for full-fledged playoff hockey IMO.

As of right now, capgeek.com has the sharks $8,500 OVER the 56.8 Mil salary cap (projected of course). This is without the addition of the Helminen tonight, so we are going deeper than that. This looks to me like we are going to let some people go, and DW is not done wheeling and dealing. I would drop Shelley (love the guy, but sorry you suck) immediately.

@glennzky, Helminen is on a 2-way contract, so I don’t think he needs to clear entry waivers. I’m pretty sure if you only have to clear entry’s if you are on a 1-way minor league contract. Helminen’s NHL salary is 500K btw, DAMN

Chris On Fire

I like the Wallin pick up too as another option to fill out the D core. Someone above mentioned that four guys are locked in and the rest are fighting for the two remaining spaces come PO time, and I agree it should be that way. No on Joslin, maybe on Demers, maybe on Leach, hell no on Huskins.

I’ve been a big non-supporter of Huskins since about the 2nd week of the season, but I will admit he has improved of late, but only if you count improvement as the coaching staff limiting his role (no special teams anymore) and keeping his shifts short (30 seconds, or less sometimes). He hasn’t made any glaring errors of late (I’m lying, he made a horrible pass off the boards to Thornton vs. the Preds that cost us a goal), but I would really like to have another D man that we don’t have to limit and baby out there. Hopefully Wallin is that guy, or we can go get another one.

Kent Suckskins

Andrew

Buck eighty each times 30 million? Y’all have some large women up there. 😉

Lots of ragging on Demers lately. Yes, he had a bad game against Chicago. But it seems to me that whenever the Sharks let in a, for lack of a better term, cluster _ _ _ _ goal Blake is the one standing next to Nabby, head on an easy chair. I say give Demers MORE minutes up here for the next 2 months and let the old man get some rest. April is another story.

TankGirl

A bit off-topic, but may I just say re: the Pens-Caps game yesterday:

The Sharks are still, and always will be, my favorite NHL team…but the Caps made my day yesterday, and I may need to adopt them as my #2 fave after that game. 🙂 Best NBC NHL game EVER! Hee hee hee!

WI JP

I don’t know why I punish myself like this but can those of you are so hard on Huskins explain how he can be so lousy and +12? His frequent turnovers don’t result in goals?

I suspect that every player on the ice makes several passing / puck handling errors per game. For Huskins, some of you apparently keep score.

We now have even more size on defense. Could use a bit more speed, perhaps.

It would be nice to move Pavs back to the currently lame #2 power play unit. Maybe, that will happen as Boyle gets more ice time.

Enjoy the game. JP

DMan

From tsn.ca. It’s all about the POs and more big guys to work the body. And maybe a little magic voodoo, or something…

He developed a reputation for scoring overtime goals in the playoffs: All three of his career post-season goals came in extra sessions, and he even “blessed” defenceman Tim Gleason’s stick before Gleason’s OT game-winner in Game 2 of last year’s first-round series with New Jersey.

He has five assists and 26 penalty minutes in 47 games this season and ranks 15th among all NHL defencemen with 125 hits.

O’Puck

WI JP
–
I agree on Huskins. But on a team with as much talent that the Sharks have, somebody has to be a target. It seems everyone should be as good as Thornton, except too many turnovers, or Heatley, too slow, except when he’s outracing the other team in OT, Or Marleau, not a leader, yeah right, Clowe, overpaid, slow, wait until the playoffs, Shelley, you name it.
I think the only players not getting blame is Boyle & Pavs.
So, doesn’t leave many other targets.
When Doug Wilson gets a team full of All Stars and HOFER’s, then we’ll be happy, right, not.
🙂
OK, win the Cup, then we will be happy, until next year.
We are fans though!

BDub

One more Dman will take care of the playoffs roster. And soon to be au revoir Torry Mitchell, we hardly knew ye. What might have been.

Stephen B

Opinions:

Bobby Orr was the best hockey player ever! He totally redefined the role of defenseman. One season he was a +132; overwhelming his closest rival (Vladimir Konstantinov @ +64). This is not precise but, in each game during the time Bobby was on the ice, his team scored ~1.6 more goals than did their opponents — WOW!

+/- is a decent, but certainly not definitive, measure of effectiveness on the ice. By that measure both Huskins and Demers have not been a drag on the team (they are tied for sixth at +12.) That having been said, I would gladly trade both of them for Scott Nichol just for the “atmospherics” that come with them.

If we look back at previous trade deadline moves by DW we can observe that he likes to have 8 D for the POs. Acquiring Wallin does not mean that DW intends to unload Huskins or that Blake is retiring.

Having 8 D gives the coach an enormous amount of flexibility. TM can play with different combinations — much more important than with forwards. The Sharks could also send the rookie D down to the AHL for an extended stay to get them the maximum playing time. 8 D can cover for the inevitable injuries. 8 D would also allow TM to rest old fogies like Blake before the POs. Flexibility all around.

There are ways to clear out the temporary cap overage. Parking the rookies or Staubitz in Wooster for a bit will free up $8500 pretty quickly. Another route might have Pickles on IR, if he’s injured long enough. Per CapGeek that would be a savings of $16K per day.

Maybe another definition for “fan”, derived from fanatic, is “one who has their knickers permanently bunched up & too tight.” Kind of a combination of a perfectionist and a hypochondriac, who isn’t happy unless they’re complaining.

trollollier

I believe Nichol, Malhotra, and usually Murray avoid the gripes… but yes, everyone bitches about something. It’s kinda borring just yelling “go sharks” all the time.

On Wallin – I’ve no idea what he plays like, but I think we’re looking pretty solid with him. My gripe has always been squeezing Heatley in with Clowe, Huskin, and Blake’s hits on Cap Space regardless of how great they are. We’ve just been too thin on D. Now, if we’re within $8,500 of cap and adding Wallin AND Wallin can “bring the mustard”, I’d say all that Woosta Shuttle business has been worth it.

We’ll get the 8,500 at the end of the season when Shelly goes into play-off mode.

We now have lots of D options to match our many O options.
a) I’d like to see Boyle and Murray stick together but admittedly that’s just an emotional attachment to the Cranky vs Ovechkin/Iginla/etc
b) I’ve gotten used to Blake and Vlasic paired but it’s probably just the Geezer / Padawan syndrome.
c) I’ve enjoyed Leach although he isn’t spectacular, he gets the job done and I like his attitude.
d) Huskins is overpaid and possibly overplayed but not as horrible as everyone would like to think he is.
e) Demers is a rock star in training. Unfortunatly (I think) it’s too easy to be an Offensive guy in a Defensive position in the pre-NHL world. He wants to be Boyle. He needs to learn to be Pronger when it counts.
f) Joslin… eh… I’m not too sure about Joslin. I don’t tend to pay attention to him when he’s on ice, I guess.

Not a bad stable of Dmen when you consider the salary cap for this year. As to next year, I think we can clear out some cap space to give nichol, manny, possibly leech, etc what their worth by reconsidering Clowe, Huskins, Blake, Shelly, and possibly Mitchel. However, that’s next year.

(Note: in the event a huge trade occurs in the next few weeks I might change my tune about the current team… but I think we’re looking pretty solid)

From the airwaves of the most trusted sports news source in the bay area, KNBR:

“Sharks defensemen Wallin acquired in trade for a few draft picks. However, he may not suit up in Toronto.”

Where do these guys get their information? Probably the same place Raj Mathai does, their rearends.

icehawkey

im from wash dc and have been a caps fan from day 1 but they became my second fav team n 1993 when i moved to sf. unlike other people im a homer and i moved here cuz its better and began rooting for a lousy team that now very good bordering on great. im in hog heaven now that the sharks and caps are the two best teams in hockey. ive suffered a long time with these two! the pens beat us in playoffs when we had a 3-1 lead twice. plus a seven game loss last yr. ovie is the best in the league period. sid is a cry baby. ovie has more goals hits shots and hes played 10 less games. now he has the cast to go all the way except maybe goaltending, kinda lie the sharks. i have a decent chance of being happy after the season because my team won it all. go caps! go sharks! …and yes bobby orr was the greatest of all time easily and he played with two bad knees!

O’Puck

Thanks theOldeReprobate!

Anybody know of a link for today’s game to watch it on?
Best thing about the early game Tivo, and get to watch all of 24
🙂
Worst thing, have to turn the volume down @ work, ha!

Ting

I think Demers should be up here as well. Granted he turns pucks over and is out of position, but at least he can skate and be creative on offense. The pairing of Blake and Murray makes me wonder if they will ever get the puck out of their own zone. Or Huskins and Leach…yikes.

J

When are we going to get rid of Huskins? I can’t stand the guy. There is just absolutely nothing that impresses me about him. He may be a decent stay at home style defenseman, but there is nothing special about him. He has no tenacity anywhere on the ice, especially in front of the net. Have we ever seen Huskins give anyone a face-wash or mix it up with anyone in the corners after a whistle? The guy is one of the least exciting hockey players I’ve ever had to watch.